Never Overlooking the Journey

[ttjoon]

I read something today that really resonated with me.  It was so profound that I wanted to share it with all of you.  The person who wrote this was at one time a very important person in my life.  I feel blessed that we are friends, and even though our lives both went in different directions, I still hold him in the highest esteem.  Read on and enjoy.

Never Overlooking the Journey
   -by Ryan Rowe

I have a question for you; a six-word question. The words individually are often used and benign. They don't conjure images of inquisitiveness, intuitiveness or insight. They don't provoke a sudden motivation to search within. However, when asked in the following order, you will find it quite possibly the most difficult question ever asked:  What is the meaning of life?

Many of you reading this have spent the better part of 40, 50, 60 or even 70 years in search of the answer to that simple question. What is the meaning of life? I feel compelled to answer that question with another question that I feel may be more appropriate. What is the meaning of your life?

As I've continued through my modest 43 years, I've come to understand and appreciate a few things. Regardless of one's spiritual belief, there comes a moment of self-realization; a moment that may create feelings of wonder, mortality and worthiness. This moment occurs at differing stages in everyone's life. The moment when you begin asking questions like, "What is the meaning of my life?" and "Have I lived a life worthy of the time I've been given?"

You could probably ask the six-plus billion people on this planet that question and get over a billion different answers. I'm sure that the answer I'd come up with would differ from my brother who recently lost his 18 year old son. I'm sure it would be different from the homeless gentleman living on the street who is trying to find his way. And I'm certain it's different for you. The meaning of life is that which you call your own.

You can almost tell by looking at some people what meaning they find in life. With some people you see angry, self-serving, manipulative and downright unfriendly behavior. For these people the meaning of life appears to be something like, "What can I do next for me?" Or something like, "How can I improve my status at the expense of those around me?" You know what I've found? When those people leave this world for whatever may be next, they leave alone.

It's taken me three wives, ten entirely different careers, nine cats and a seventy eight year-old house to make me begin to understand the meaning of my life. My life revolves around the big picture, but never overlooking the journey. When I refer to the big picture, I'm discussing the merits of retiring comfortably and easing gently into an age of my life that will indeed be the finest of all.

The meaning of my life is finding joy and happiness whenever and wherever I can. I live my life by the mantra of the glass is most definitely half full. I've enjoyed the first half and I'm certainly going to enjoy the second half.

What about you?  What's your meaning of life?

[PPI Brian]

Hi Tracy,

Thanks for sharing this with us. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who get "all philosophical" from time to time. 

I know that my life has been, shall we say, less than anticipated, but my moment of "awakening" happened when I was about 22 years old. I was working as a gravedigger at Glenn Abbey and we were expecting my daughter to be born within a matter of months. We were struggling financially so I had to quit college, and my writing was going nowhere, and the pay in the cemetery sucked. Greenwood was union and a backhoe operator made $17.00 an hour then, and I made $4.50 doing the exact same job.  We tried to unionize with the Operating Engineers and the company threatened to fire all of us if we did. Things were not going well for us.

But I learned a valuable lesson about life working there. We averaged five funerals a day, so we were pretty busy sewing up all the lose ends of people's lives. Every day I saw people grieving over their loss, young, old, middle-aged... it didn't matter. People die every single day, but most of us wander through life thinking that it will never happen to us.

In a very short period of time I began to see how fragile we are, and what a miracle it is to be alive. The daily exposure to death had a profound impact on me. It gave me a perspective on life that I would not have had otherwise. I learned how important it is to tell the ones we love how much we care for them, because one day they will not be with us. I began to realize how many people live thier lives as if they were already dead; they are lost in the past or absorbed in the future while the present moment slipped through their fingers. Opportunities to spend with their loved ones were lost forever because they were too absorbed in things they could not change or things that had not yet come to pass. Life is impermanent, and we are of the nature to die. There is no way to avoid this. But we can enjoy the time we have been given.

As you said, the meaning of life is different for different people. When I left the cemetery I found myself unconsciously drawn to activities that helped make the world a better place than the world I found. Through charity work for local museums or donating blood and platelets for Leukemia patients, to helping organize non-union workers, to teaching safety and health all across North America. Somehow this desire to help people turned into a full time job, so in this regard I consider myself blessed. And of course, through it all, I have spent over three quarters of my life investigating spooky old houses, listening to audio and video, and reviewing evidence from our investigations.  As a solo investigator it was more of a selfish endeavor, trying to find answers to my own questions. Becoming a member of a formal group such as PPI, I have been given the opportunity to help people dealing with their own paranormal questions and concerns.

It's like the old Aerosmith song "Amazing": Life's a journey, not a destination. And I just can't tell just what tomorrow brings. Truer words have never been said. Hold on to those you love, show someone a little extra kindness today, and be sure to take a moment to look up at the night sky and admire the timeless beauty of the stars and the moon. They will still be there long after we have departed this life.

Sorry to get all "philosophical".

Brian